France.  He won over many of those Gascon nobles, including the powerful lord of Albret, who had been alienated by his former indifference.  All was ready for action, and in June, 1345, Henry of Grosmont, Earl of Derby, the eldest son of Henry of Lancaster, landed at Bayonne with a sufficient English force to encourage the lords of Gascony to rally round the ducal banner.  Soon after his landing, the death of his blind father made Derby Earl of Lancaster.  During the next eighteen months, the earl successfully led three raids into the heart of the enemies’ territory.[1] The first, begun very soon after his landing, occupied the summer of 1345.  Advancing from Libourne, the limit of the Anglo-Gascon power, Henry made his way up the Dordogne, a fleet of boats co-operating with his land forces.  He took the important town of Bergerac, and thence, mounting the stream as far as Lalinde, he crossed the hills separating the Dordogne from the Isle, and unsuccessfully assaulted Perigueux.  Thence he advanced still further, and captured the stronghold of Auberoche, dominating the rocky valley of the Auvezere.  Leaving a garrison at Auberoche, Henry returned to his base, but upon his withdrawal the French closely besieged his conquest, and the earl made a sudden move to its relief.  On October 21 he won a brisk battle outside the walls of Auberoche before the more sluggish part of his army had time to reach the scene of action.  This famous exploit again established the Gascon duke in Perigord.

    [1] For these campaigns, see Ribadieu, Les Campagnes du Comte
    de Derby en Guyenne, Saintonge et Poitou (1865).

Early in 1346 the victor of Auberoche led his forces up the Garonne valley.  La Reole, lost since 1325, was taken in January, and thence Earl Henry marched to the capture of many a town and fortress on the Garonne and the lower Lot.  His most important acquisition was Aiguillon, commanding the junction of the Lot and the Garonne, for its possession opened up the way for the reconquest of the Agenais, the rich fruit of the last campaign of Charles of Valois.  Duke John of Normandy then appeared upon the scene, and Henry of Lancaster withdrew before him to the line of the Dordogne.  Aiguillon stood a siege from April to August, when the Duke of Normandy, then at the end of his resources, solicited a truce.  News having come to Lancaster at Bergerac that Edward had begun his memorable invasion of Normandy, he contemptuously rejected the proposal.  Before long, Duke John raised the siege and hurried to his father’s assistance.  Thereupon Lancaster returned to the Garonne and revictualled Aiguillon.  Immediately after he started on his third raid.  This time he bent his steps northwards, and late in September was at Chateauneuf on the Charente, whence he threatened Angouleme, and finally obtained its surrender.  Crossing the Charente, he entered French Saintonge, where the important town of Saint-Jean-d’Angely opened its gates and took oaths to Edward as